ON THE MONUMENT OF A FAIR MAIDEN LADY, WHO DIED AT BATH, AND IS THERE INTERRED. This lady lies buried in the Abbey-Church at Bath. The lines are accompanied by the following inscription upon a monument of white marble: Here lies the body of Mary, third daughter of Richard Frampton of Moreton, in Dorsetshire, Esq. and of Jane his wife, sole daughter of Sir Francis Cothington of Fonthill, in Wilts, who was born January 1, 1676, and died, after seven weeks illness, on the 6th of September, 1698. "This monument was erected by Catharine Frampton, her second sister and executrix, in testimony of her grief, affection, and gratitude." BELOW this marble monument is laid Her limbs were form'd with such harmonious grace: So faultless was the frame, as if the whole Which her own inward symmetry reveal'd, How much her worth transcended all her kind. S Yet she had learn'd so much of heaven below, For human thoughts, but was confined to prayer; "Twas wondrous how she found an hour to pray. UNDER MR MILTON'S PICTURE, BEFORE HIS PARADISE LOST. This inscription appeared under the engraving prefixed to Tonson's folio edition of the Paradise Lost, published by subscription, under the patronage of Somers, in 1688. Dryden was one of the subscribers. Atterbury, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, was active in procuring subscribers. See a letter of his to Tonson, MaLONE'S Life of Dryden, p. 203. Mr Malone regards Dryden's hexastich as an amplification of Selvaggi's distich, addressed to Milton while at Rome: Græcia Moonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem, THREE poets, in three distant ages born, 8 |